Peter D. Hunt
Visual Effects Artist
April 13, 2005

Peter D. Hunt's visual effects career has spanned the arenas of feature film, television, commercials, and music videos. To date, his work has been seen in such projects as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Torque, Stargate SG-1, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Stargate Atlantis, and Garfield. Peter was nominated for a 2004 Gemini for his work the Andromeda episode "A Symmetry of Imperfection" and he was a contributing artist on the Stargate Atlantis episode "Rising", which was nominated for a 2005 Visual Effects Society (VES) award (VES awards list only the supervisors and coordinators on the award). We talked to Peter about his varied past with LightWave and the visual effects industry.

K19/Cuban Missile Crisis - LightWave 3D used for all aspects of image.

Can you tell us about a little about yourself and your history with 3D?
I am a visual effects artist originally from Toronto, Canada. I started playing with graphics software in my high school multimedia class when I found out you could do more than just DOS commands on a home PC. Did anyone else know about this?!?! Why did no one tell me about this earlier? From that day forward I geeked out learning post production and VFX on desktops.

How were you first introduced to LightWave 3D?
I was first introduced through the Video Toaster on the Amiga in my high school, Stephen Leacock CI in Toronto, Canada, where I was fortunate enough to attend a school that had a television production and multimedia class. I was introduced to several facets of production, including post, where I started editing and playing around with both 2D and 3D animation software. My teacher Howard Gross (whom I always promised to mention his help and support when I talk about my start) and the Toronto Board Of Education allowed me great access to the machines during lunch periods, after school, etc. Truth be told, he probably looked the other way when I was skipping classes to sit on the boxes. In the days of higher computer prices and software, getting your hands on machines powerful enough to do graphics was one of the greatest challenges.

Robocop: Prime Directives - LightWave 3D used to generate laser and glow effects.

You spend long periods with companies, but you classify yourself as freelance. How so?
Dictionary.com defines freelance as, "A person who sells services to employers without a long-term commitment to any of them."

This may just be a terminology thing. I simply consider myself "freelance" if I am not staff, if I have a set contract or time period to work. I also often bill through my own company when billing my services so on paper technically I am a subcontractor I suppose.

What advantages do you feel that working freelance gives you?
I have worked as a freelancer more based on the conditions of employment then choosing it over "staff." In theory freelancing your rate is a little higher then if you were staff as you are a temporary employee. Often you can deduct business expenses (travel, equipment, etc) if you bill as a small business. The drawbacks however are less job stability, no benefits, paid holidays, etc.

Alone at Sea - LightWave 3D used for all aspects of image.

What feature of LightWave do you like the most?
Being I'm mostly an effects animation, lighting and rendering guy it would be a combination of those features. I like the fact that I can do an effects shot start to finish in a small amount of time for a TV environment.

Are there any plug-ins you use on a regular basis?
I pretty much just use LightWave off the shelf as every place you work doesn't have the same plug-ins. That being said, Arete NatureFX for water displacements is great and I have used that on several projects.

Garfield: The Movie - LightWave 3D used for facial animation and replacement.

You've worked on a number of documentaries, including Cuban Missile Crisis: Secret Subs, K-19: Doomsday Submarine, and Alone at Sea. Does working on a project that requires historical accuracy present any special challenges over working on projects with a more fantasy aspect, such as Andromeda or Stargate: Atlantis?
There definitely is a difference, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. What is great about working on docs is there is a tangible reality that the imagery is often based on. This is great as you have something to strive towards, in many cases a clear goal. That can be a double-edged sword as sometimes if a shot was 10% different it may be 100% easier to do for artistic or technical reasons. It also comes down to how accurate the director, producer, specialists etc. want to be. Often VFX are used to communicate an idea or feeling of the docs topic, not be factual information itself. So that being said certain liberties can be taken to keep it entertaining, easy to understand and what else? Oh yes, on time and on budget.

Fantasy projects often come down to what looks really cool on screen and moves the story along. That can again be a double edge sword as you have a chance to be creative, but there is no "right" answer. It can often be a case of never being 100% satisfied as you can always imagine more then you have time to create, certainly in a TV shows tight delivery schedule.

Torque - LightWave 3D used to generate dust and shadow effects.

They say the greatest compliment that can be paid to an effects artist is that their work isn't recognized as such. For the movie Torque, you were called on to produce some visual effects that most people wouldn't notice as such. In particular, can you tell us how you used LightWave to create the visor for Ice Cube's motorcycle helmet and why?
Though I have worked on many obvious fx shots, when getting into vfx I had always desired to work on the "there was a special effect in that" shots. The CG visors were added to the close-ups of actors was to overcome undesired in camera artifacts. Ok it was to avoid reflections but didn't that first answer sounds more interesting? Basically there had been concerns or problems with the camera crew showing up in the reflections of the visors on some of the shots. It's hard to look big and bad doing stunts on a motorcycle when you can see the crew holding up bounce cards to light you better.

There had been a 3D model scanned of the helmet complete with the visor. From there it was a matter of hand tracking the visor in 3D space, using the plate for reflections on the visor and some nice incidence angle gradients on the reflection channel to simulate a Fresnel effect. From there it was a matter of hitting render and the roto artists providing a matte where the visor was supposed to go to cover up any slipping of my less then stellar 3D track. Just an example of how compositing is the 3D artist's best friend.

In case any readers don't know a "Fresnel" effect is hugely important on most highly reflective surfaces like metal and water. Ever notice if you standing in water and you look straight down you see less reflections then if you look straight ahead and see tons more of sky reflections bouncing off the water in comparison? Reflections (and diffusion and specularity for that matter) often change depending what angle you're looking at something.

Many artists looking to get into the industry only think about doing shots featuring robots and spaceships. You've done your share of those, but how common is it to be called on to produce this kind of seemingly unusual and necessarily unnoticeable visual effect?
"Don't worry, they'll fix it in post." I don't know how much more I should get into that phrase ;) It really comes down to knowing where to fight your battles. Sometimes the fact of the matter is it is cheaper and easier to fix something in CG (3D or 2D) then fix it "in camera" (through the eyes of a real camera lens when filming). Also there are times when mistakes happen that where not caught on set/location and CG is the only realistic way of covering up the mishap. It happens all the time and sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not. But in the end you're one artist contributing to a larger picture and it's about getting that project look the best it can. If you watch the credits of about 90%+ of the films these days you will see visual effects in films that you would never know had them. A lot more films have seamless effects then you will ever think. For example if you look very closely with a trained eye you will notice over sixteen CG enhanced shots in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I for one had no idea!

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda - LightWave 3D used for all aspects of image.

You were nominated for a 2004 Gemini award for your work on the Andromeda episode "A Symmetry of Imperfection", and you were a contributing artist to the Stargate: Atlantis episode "Rising", which was nominated for a 2005 VES award. How did LightWave 3D contribute to these two noteworthy achievements?
That's almost a hard question to answer, as it was essential. Asking that is like asking "how did your camera contribute to filming your movie?" I don't know how I could have artistically and technically delivered on those deadlines without LightWave. A real strength of LightWave is it's speed in a production environment. When LightWave hits it's stride, you can make really cool stuff really fast. Granted working with a talented team who knows how to abuse the software helps too.

Are there any projects you've worked on that you consider favorites? How so?
It's like any favorites in life, always favorites for different reasons. Torque was tons of fun as I got to visit California for the first time and work on a big Hollywood feature surrounded by a hugely talented team of artists. That's the dream of any fx geek growing up. That and unlimited LEGO.

Stagate: Atlantis - LightWave 3D used for all aspects of image.

What's next for Peter D. Hunt?
Sleep. I've stayed up to late answering these questions and there are clients coming to the studio first thing in the morning.

Thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us, Peter!

To learn more about Peter D. Hunt and his work, visit his personal web site at http://www.peterdhunt.com.